Impacts, Part Two: The Health of the Audience
This part of the essay begins with some random statistics to keep you curious and awake: *28,000,000 (how many Americans suffer from hearing loss) Ringen, J. (2005, December 01). Is Music Making You Deaf? Rolling Stone. p. 11. Note, this statistic is highly general, and accounts for all forms of hearing loss, not just cases that relate to portable music players and excessive audio volume exposure. *10,000,000 (how many Europeans have been negatively affected by high volumes from audio players) Editorial. <2011, September 14). "Hello, Hello, I Can't Hear You, I Used To Love Music." AllAfrica. *15,000 (the number of hair follicles found in the human ear) Fraser, S. (2005, December 16). Safe and Sound. Current Science. p. 8. *130 (decibels most mp3 players can produce at full volume) Ringen, J. (2005, December 01). Is Music Making You Deaf? Rolling Stone. p. 11. *120 (decibels a Boeing 747 produces, at full throttle during takeoff, measured from 30 meters away) Editorial. (2011, September 14). "Hello, Hello, I Can't Hear You, I Used To Love Music." AllAfrica. *85 (decibels, the highest level of sound the human ear can withstand, indefinitely, without damage) Editorial. (2011, September 14). "Hello, Hello, I Can't Hear You, I Used To Love Music." AllAfrica. *9 (the number of decibels that separates a vacuum cleaner from a motorcycle) Editorial (2005, December 19). Eh? iPod Earbuds Can Cause Hearing Loss. TechWeb. *8 (percent, the amount of youths concerned about hearing loss, out of 10,000 surveyed) Ringen, J. (2005, December 01). Is Music Making You Deaf? Rolling Stone. p. 11. As you probably have guessed, this segment deals almost solely with hearing. Pretext It's anticipated that about seventy-eight million Americans will suffer from some variety of hearing loss by the year 2030, an increase of thirty million over the above mentioned figure of twenty-eight million. Ringen, J. (2005, December 01). Is Music Making You Deaf? Rolling Stone. p. 11. For illustration, that's approximately double the population of Canada as of January 2011. (2011, March 24). The Daily. Retrieved April 15, 2012 from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/110324/dq110324b-eng.htm Think of it: in eighteen short years, enough people to fill an entire nation, twice, will be experiencing deafness at varying levels -- and that's just in the United States alone. Now, that's not to say that all of these cases will be acquired, and even if so, whether or not iPods and Walkmans have contributed. But it isn't irresponsible to say that these convenience devices, when misused, make it very easy to damage the intricate workings of our ears. Because, as the "random statistics" declare at the outset of this chapter, an iPod at full volume pounds out over a hundred decibels, producing sound effectively louder than a departing jet aircraft being heard from a safe viewing distance. At that level of decibels, comparisons have been drawn to jackhammers and other construction equipment. You can't help but find some irony in the fact that the people who operate this kind of equipment are usually required, either by law or common sense, to wear protective headgear that preserves their hearing. But not musicians or their followers, not the frontmen or spectators. These people willingly expose their ears to this barrage, most unaware of the consequences that will almost certainly follow. How the Ear Works Fraser, S. (2005, December 16). Safe and Sound. Current Science. p. 8. Before we continue, this segment might be better appreciated if first the basic mechanics of the human ear are briefly explained. The two small orifices leading into our ears, are referred to as the auditory canals. Their purpose is to guide sound deeper into our head, with the added protective function of dust and particulate capture, using naturally secreted wax. A thin flap of skin, the ear drum, seals off the back half of the cavity and protects the highly sensitive components located inside, including a small network of bones called the ossicles, which include the body's smallest bone, the stapes. This particular bone captures the raw soundwaves, which have up until this point been airborne in transit, and conveys them into the cochlea, snail-shaped, fluid filled appendix, through reverberation. It is particularly important that the sound vibrations now be transported in solid form, as the cochlea is fluid filled. Nearing the end of our journey into your head, its here in the cochlea, that we can find the fifteen-thousand odd hair cells mentioned in the introduction. A great deal of them are tuned to register only certain frequencies, and their roots, the actual hair follicle, connects directly to a nerve link into the region of the brain dedicated to processing sound. It's here, in the central processing unit of our consciousness, that all this information, first a complex series of sound waves vibrating at different speeds, then a set of bio-electrical impulses running in parallel, is synthesized into the phenomenon we call speech and music, to cite two socially designated varieties of sounds. But, up until the brain, and the methods is uses, sound is virtually indecipherable, really just an incongruous buzz. ' - DID YOU KNOW? - ' Certain kinds of music are considered high-risk genres for hearing loss? Rap and rock have been named as more hazardous than classical or acoustic, based on listener habit, and social encouragement, to play these styles at high volume. Editorial (2005, December 19). Eh? iPod Earbuds Can Cause Hearing Loss. TechWeb. You've probably heard, in an industrial application, how solid-state machinery is superior due to low fail rates and overall high durability. This is particularly true as anything that moves, tends to wear out over time, either due to friction, breakage, or loosening. The human body seems to contradict this reality, as it's virtually a container that comprises almost exclusively of moving parts, be it ligaments that stretch, joints that pivot, muscles that twitch, lungs, expanding and contracting, or eyes that move. A few seemingly solid state components exist, like our brain, You could argue that even the supposedly "solidly" operating organs move down at the cellular and biochemical level, however. and seemingly, our ears. This would be true if it weren't for the moving hair strands in the cochlea. And because those hairs move, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, reacting even to ambient sound when we sleep, they wear out. Like the hair strands upon our head, cochlear hairs can regrow if damaged or worn, and this is a normal process that is repeated with some frequency throughout our life. However, when damage occurs not to the strand, but to the actual follicle, that cell is unable to regenerate, resulting in a dead register for whatever sound frequency the hair was tuned to interpret. But in a sealed off, fluid filled environment, far from prying fingers, what damage could happen there? Well ... that damage could be caused by high decibel vibrations thumping through the stapes, in other words, your iPod jacked up to maximum on your morning commute to school or work, or the rock concert you went to last night. Exposed to excessive levels of sound for extended periods of time, irreversible deafness, in differing varieties (as demonstrated by the video above) begins to set in quickly. The Known Effects of Portable Audio Players The United Nation's World Health Organization recognizes that eighty-five decibels is the maximum level of sound our ears can handle, non stop, without sustaining some kind of damage. That would be the maximum recommended operating threshold, if the cochlea was a machine. Workplace regulation exists (through the W.H.O.) that forbids exposure to anything greater than 85 dB for longer than five minutes a day, yet until recently, no such law bound electronics manufacturers when marketing their personal, portable audio players. Optimal output levels, as determined by the consumer audience, was closer to 100 dB, and this is the maximum you see on most devices. There are even exceptions to this average, however, with the Apple iPod and Sony Walkman weighing in at 100-130 European iPods are sound limited to 100 dB, by law. and 130 dB, respectively. Ringen, J. (2005, December 01). Is Music Making You Deaf? Rolling Stone. p. 11. In Europe, where some ten million individuals suffer from some form of hearing loss, directly ''attributable to portable audio players, regulation was quickly enacted. In this part of the world, mp3 players must be limited by their manufacturers, to output no more than 80 to 85 dB when at maximum volume. Further, a study was initiated by the European Union's ''Scientific Committee for Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks, or SCENIHR, for short. While confirming a variety of suspected issues related to excessive volume exposure from mp3 players, a few shockers were also announced, including the declaration that other, "unrelated" health risks can be caused or made worse by high level sound. "Cardiovascular effects" was one particular phrase used in the report. Not only is overall volume important, but also the type of sound-producing unit used. This refers specifically to the headset part of the mp3 player equation. Over the ear headphones accurately produce a proportionate amount of decibels in relation to the player's volume control, but earbuds behave differently. According to Prof. Konrad Rydzynsky, a Polish national who helped contribute to the stated SCENIHR report, in-ear earbuds actually amplify the sound even further, sometimes boosting that output by a further 9 dB. In this damning scenario, a user can easily expose themselves to nearly 140 dB for as long as they want, almost double the maximum safe level for mere five minute daily intervals. PLAYBACK CONTROL << RW | FFWD >> Citations and References Category:Articles Category:The Rise of the iPod